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rawketgrl IF you like it and know the pros and cons about it and feel your lifestyle can accommodate it then GO FOR IT. My house? We have iron hard oak in a warm honey maple color. It is in all the rooms on our main floor, baths, kitchen, laundry, living, everywhere. Yes it is warping a little in front of the shower. We have a hard working farmhouse rural lifestyle, with 2 dogs and lots of foot traffic with shoes on and off and it is awesome wearing. I do have felt on the bottoms of ALL of my furniture. IF I had a high maintenance softer wood floor I would post a sign that said "Life is full of choices either remove your shoes or clean the floor" and set a basket of shoe protectors on the porch and make every one wear them or remove their shoes before coming in. In my world that is not practical or wanted but it may be in yours. Do what you want it is your space! :D

CMR Interiors & Design Consultations Inc. I have dark wood in my house. I regret that choice with 4 pets and my husband and I. Since the dog came to us, I've noticed a lot of scratching from her "scoobie doo" excitable running in place on the wood floors.

The advantage of cerused or something hand scraped is that it has character from the start-and its meant to look beat up. It only looks better with age.

This style of floor doesn't age well. It's meant to look contemporary and sleek. If you want dark just know you will be using swiffer daily. Every crumb and piece of lint shows on it. I will never have dark floors again. I don't want that kind of maintenance anymore.

I can also see that they haven't finished the sides of this pre-finished product and a good company does. If your floor shifts, or cups, you will see that contrast unfinished on the side.

You also have to make sure you have a consistent humidity situation with dark floors. You can't have the floors cupping over time from lack of humidity, separating in the winter time. You need about 25-30% humidity in the house around the year.

I have clients invest in a superior humidistat/ venta air washers for the house when they go with certain floors to preserve them with less fuss.

A Kitchen That Works LLC What type of wood flooring is this? It looks like engineered flooring. Can you provide the brand name?

azelizabeth I can't recall the brand, I have it written in my office. It is solid hardwood and has a 50 year warranty. The first picture is not that great because of the iphone flash/quality.

lewis + smith If it is a prefinished engineered floor, I would recommend against installing it in a kitchen. Wood floor in a kitchen is fine, but your really want three coats of Swedish finish on it in order for it to hold up against all the wear and proximity to water.

A Kitchen That Works LLC We install hardwood floors in kitchens frequently. My one suggestions is that you consider a "tile rug" (install a 3'x3' area of tile in front of the exterior doors) at the exterior doors to take the brunt of wet feet upon entering the house.
To keep your hardwood floors looking beautiful, remove your shoes at the door and sweep frequently with a dust mop (not a swiffer).

azelizabeth What if it is a prefinished solid wood floor?

Norm Walters Construction Inc. I would install tile with a wood look. The flooring in the picture shown is Panaria Planks

A Kitchen That Works LLC Realize that there is pre-finished solid hardwood flooring and there is pre-finished engineered flooring. I would concur with Lewis + Smith that installing a pref-finished engineered floor in a kitchen is not the best choice. I would also concur with CMR Interiors in that dark floors show scratches and scuffs more than lighter stained floors.

CMR Interiors & Design Consultations Inc. I meant the bona mop. Its made specifically for wood floors.

CMR Interiors & Design Consultations Inc. Check out DeChateau flooring in your area: http://duchateaufloors.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/VinylDeluxe-DuChateau_2012.pdf
They have amazing finishes. Both wood and vinyl.

loroca I lived with prefinished dark hardwood, and i swore that i would never put it in my own home. It looks great when its clean! But within 1/2 hr you can see everything, even dust that settles. And it does scratch easy. I currently have an older hardwood floor in my kitchen, but its a natural birch finish. You don't really notice the scratches, and crumbs and stuff is only seen once it gets bad...at which point i should sweep anyways. If you want a darker colour, i would suggest getting something classic like oak, and get it stained once its installed, a dark colour. It won't be as dark as the ones you have in the picture because of the nature of the wood, but it would still be contemporary because of the colour chosen.

moofossa I have Brazilian Teak in my kitchen and dining room - we have 3 kids and a dog - and the only scratches after 6 years are a few from the chairs when we needed to replace the felt pads. It has been an awesome floor. Was he discouraging you because the type of wood is a soft wood?

azelizabeth I think he discouraged me because there was a little sheen and the dark color. I really like the wood, it looks far better than that first photo. I want med to medium dark and I like a clean look. He keptnpushing me to a distressed even darker hand scraped floor and I just didn't like it for my home.

Bobbie S I love wood in the kitchen. Do what you like. The only thing is the darker color will collect dust. But I like it! Good luck.

boll123 I had the same dilemma. A strong desire for wide plank dark floors, but we also have a white golden retriever and 3 kids. We ended up using white quartersawn oak, stained ebony which ended up looking like a rich dark walnut with an ultra matte finish. For our needs the color is perfect and the matte finish hides a lot. Had we done with a glossy finish, it would have shown everything.

DIAspoton you might regret the choice in the photo. shows absolutely everything. the bigger stores stock the floors and suggestyou buy a few returnable samples to try at home. why not buy a dozen planks each of this and one other floor and lay them out in your kitchen. walk on them. leave them down for a day or 2. then decide.

azelizabeth Great idea, thanks. Is it the medium gloss that is the issue or the color? They had many that were much darker so I was thinking the color would be ok for a med to dark floor. Or is It the type of wood, maple?

loroca Its the combination of both. If you still wanna go with dark prefinished wood, go with a satin finish. Any gloss will show any scratch

loroca The wood also is an issue because maple has such a fine grain. Its a tough decision because maple has such a nice look

sethrobyn I also had dark glossy oak floors. It shows every footprint and they are a dust magnet! They are lovely when clean but it sure doesn't last long!

Design Mode What is your lifestyle and expectation for the floor? I used to work in flooring, so this is what I would ask. Your floor will get nicked if you drop a knife, large canned goods, etc. And the finish may scratch if you take a razor blade to it - like the young man in the store. After all, it must be cut with a saw to fit your floor area. But are you going to allow anyone to stomp around in spike heels, or practice with figure skates, or try out a new razor blade - on your floors?
Small boo-boos and time give character and patina. If you don't want that, get porcelain floors.
There is a hardness scale for wood. Maple is stronger than oak.
http://www.superiorflooring.ca/janka-hardness-scale

CMR Interiors & Design Consultations Inc. Yes if you want that formalized dark wood work for sure than go with a rift and sawn white oak with a jacobean walnut like stain

azelizabeth Thanks. Bottom line ...we live in our house but my current tile was installed in early 1996 and it is in excellent shape, so that must say something. We are active but have no pets and it won't be long until they are off to college. I dont want new tile and I don't want a wood I won't like, now I just have to figure out which one will be best given my taste. This discussion has been helpful.